Ari Rivera

Welcome to the site, I’m Ari, a junior at freestyle. Born in Palo Alto, I moved to Saudi Arabia when I was 7 years old and am back in California to finish my last two years of high school and hopefully college. The product of an international community, I take pride in my Mexican/Indonesian roots and upbringing in the middle east. Art has always been a passion, and although I do photography and film, music is what I really want to do. I’m currently struggling to find my sound as a musician and create songs that I can be proud of. Constantly working on new content, I’m also a member of the 10 piece online music collective called MATINEE. If you can’t find me in the studio or walking around campus taking photos, I’m probably holed up in my room writing or producing songs.

What’s Going on This Site?

This site will serve as a collection of all my freestyle assignments up until my graduation. That includes all junior and senior projects, as well as any other work that they require us to put up on here. I will also be putting up my music and photography, as well as any other creative projects that I am currently working on. This includes photo shoots, song demos, video projects, and anything of the like. Expect a lot of exclusive behind the scenes content on here.

My Freestyle Experience

Freestyle has been great so far. Although the workload can be a little heavy and overwhelming, I love everything I am doing. I’ve always loved editing and being creative and now its an integral part of my education which is like killing two birds with one stone. A lot of projects that we do here don’t really sit with me well artistically but I know that they help me be a better artist and apply whatever I have learned into my own personal projects. All the students here are super welcoming too and in the few weeks that we have been here, it already feels like a family. I can not stress how much a unique experience being a freestyle student is.